Текст 1.
This story happened in Africa long ago. Two strangers came to a village in the evening. They came to the chief of that village and said:
"May we stay for the night in your village?"
"Oh, yes," said the chief. "There is a house for strangers in our village. You may sleep there, and there is supper for you to eat. But you must know this: there is an old custom in our village — strangers may sleep in our house for strangers, but they must not snore. We kill the man who snores."
The strangers went to the house. They had a good supper there, and then went to sleep. They slept well. One hour passed, two hours passed, and one of them began to snore.
The other man heard the snoring. He thought: "The people will hear the snoring and kill him."
The stranger wanted to save the man. He thought a little and then began to sing. He sang very well. The people did not hear the snoring, they listened to the song. Then they began to dance. Some of them sang songs together with the stranger and danced to the music. Men, women and even the chief sang and danced. All night one stranger snored, the other stranger sang, and all the people sang and danced.
In the morning the strangers came to the chief to say goodbye and to thank him for everything. The chief said goodbye to them and gave them a small bag of money.
"I give this money to both of you. We had a good time with you: we danced and sang well. Thank you very much."
The strangers left the village, but on the road they began to quarrel.
"How shall we divide the money?" said one of them. "I must have the bigger part. Why did you sing last night? Because I snored! So I must have the bigger part of the money."
And the other man said, "Yes, that's so. But the people could kill you, because you snored. My songs saved your life. You must only thank me and give me the bigger part of the money."
They quarrelled and quarrelled and could not decide anything. Can you?
Текст 2.
At last the Mouse, who seemed to be a person of authority among them, called out, 'Sit down, all of you, and listen to me! I'LL soon make you dry enough!' They all sat down at once, in a large ring, with the Mouse in the middle. Alice kept her eyes anxiously fixed on it, for she felt sure she would catch a bad cold if she did not get dry very soon.
'Ahem!' said the Mouse with an important air, 'are you all ready? This is the driest thing I know. Silence all round, if you please! "William the Conqueror, whose cause was favoured by the pope, was soon submitted to by the English, who wanted leaders, and had been of late much accustomed to usurpation and conquest. Edwin and Morcar, the earls of Mercia and Northumbria—"'
'Ugh!' said the Lory, with a shiver.
'I beg your pardon!' said the Mouse, frowning, but very politely: 'Did you speak?'
'Not I!' said the Lory hastily.
'I thought you did,' said the Mouse. '—I proceed. "Edwin and Morcar, the earls of Mercia and Northumbria, declared for him: and even Stigand, the patriotic archbishop of Canterbury, found it advisable—"'
'Found WHAT?' said the Duck.
'Found IT,' the Mouse replied rather crossly: 'of course you know what "it" means.'
'I know what "it" means well enough, when I find a thing,' said the Duck:
'it's generally a frog or a worm. The question is, what did the archbishop find?'
The Mouse did not notice this question, but hurriedly went on, '"—found it advisable to go with Edgar Atheling to meet William and offer him the crown. William's conduct at first was moderate. But the insolence of his Normans—" How are you getting on now, my dear?' it continued, turning to Alice as it spoke.
'As wet as ever,' said Alice in a melancholy tone: 'it doesn't seem to dry me at all.'
'In that case,' said the Dodo solemnly, rising to its feet, 'I move that the meeting adjourn, for the immediate adoption of more energetic remedies—'
'Speak English!' said the Eaglet. 'I don't know the meaning of half those long words, and, what's more, I don't believe you do either!' And the Eaglet bent down its head to hide a smile: some of the other birds tittered audibly.
'What I was going to say,' said the Dodo in an offended tone, 'was, that the best thing to get us dry would be a Caucus-race.'
'What IS a Caucus-race?' said Alice; not that she wanted much to know, but the Dodo had paused as if it thought that SOMEBODY ought to speak, and no one else seemed inclined to say anything.
